Thursday, December 12, 2013

by Sam Hailes - 11th December 2013

Discern danger: Dr Mark DurieA
PUBLIC HEALTH official’s bid to lower the age of consent would
undermine the fight against human trafficking, warns an Australian
professor.
Human rights activist Dr Mark Durie said the current
law was ‘necessary…in order to prevent the trafficking of children’, as
he spoke out against Faculty of Public Health President, Professor John
Ashton’s suggestion to lower the age of consent to 15.Slapped down: Prof John Ashton. Photo: Owen Humphreys/PAIn an attempt to provoke ‘a debate’ on the age of consent, Prof Ashton had told The Sunday Times that society should accept around a third of boys and girls are having sex at 14 or 15.
His
comments were quickly slapped down by leading political figures
including Prime Minister David Cameron who said there were no plans to
change the current law.
Speaking this week Dr Durie explained,
‘The age of consent is not designed to prevent younger people from
having sex with each other, but from being abused by people who are
older and whose life experience has made them skilled at manipulation of
someone who is young and vulnerable'.
Citing a 1885 Pall Mall Gazette report written by William Thomas Stead and a 2013 police report titled Threat Assessment of Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, Dr Durie said, ‘both identify 14-15 as the target age group for trafficking girls for sex’.
'To
remove all possible legal uncertainty about whether young people have
'consented' to being trafficked or prostituted, the age of consent is
needed. 16 is a minimum age when a child begins to have more adult-like
ability to discern danger and say no. When the age of consent was raised
in the 19th century, there was a measurable reduction in prostitution
of younger girls.
‘There is an argument that even 16 is too young for the age of consent’, he added.
The
Anglican pastor also claimed there is a lack of political will to fight
human trafficking and that both the government and Christians need to
take more action.
‘Few people are willing to get out of bed in the
morning for the sake of trafficked girls. This is a measure of the low
state of Christianity in the UK’.
Dr Durie’s words follow Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby’s rallying call in the Church Times that human trafficking ‘demands concerted action from the Church’.The price of flesh: Salvation Army awareness campaign
But
Salvation Army spokesperson Isobel McFarlene believes the root problem
is not lack of action but a lack of awareness and said the organisation
was ‘working hard…to raise awareness’.
The organisation, which was
founded in1865, was praised in a speech earlier this year by the
Ministry of Justice’s Helen Grant MP.
She said they were 'at the coalface, looking after and supporting victims of the terrible crime of Human Trafficking'.
Speaking
about the connection between human rights and faith, Professor Bernard
K. Freamon, who teaches a course on Human Trafficking and the Law at
Seton Hall, New Jersey says all three monotheistic faiths have texts
that 'accepted the institution of slavery'.
He argues that the
Hebrew Bible, New Testament and Qur’an all 'sought to humanize and
regulate the practice of slavery rather than seek its outright and
immediate abolition'.
But Dr Durie has argued abolitionist George
Stephen (1794-1879) believed the 1833 act to abolish slavery in the UK
was inspired by belief in God.
Stephen wrote, ‘The main strength
of the abolition party lay among the middle and lower classes, and this
support had been created by faithful adherence to the text, that to
uphold slavery was a crime before God, and consequently that its
abolition must be immediate and unconditional'.
Modern
organisations such as the International Justice Mission (IJM) and
Passion City Church have sought to follow in the footsteps of
Wilberforce and Stephen as they often target their campaigns at young
Christians.
In a speech last year President Obama mentioned both
IJM and Passion City Church by name, saying they, ‘like the great
abolitionists before them, are truly doing the Lord’s work’. He also
praised Christians who 'were answering the Bible’s call -- to "seek
justice" and "rescue the oppressed".'David Batstone, who profiled the rise of the 21st century abolitionist movement in his book Not For Sale
and has been described by Bono as a ‘heroic character’ said, ‘Slavery
takes so many forms, as it is interwoven within legal industries and is
embedded into the supply chain.'
The struggle against it was a sacred calling, he said.
‘This
is a serious battle for us…I really believe that God gives us a
vocation, and I believe there is a purpose for our lives on this earth.'

Tuesday, June 11, 2013

This post gives an overview of
what I have been able to learn about research studies about issues which affect the
same-sex marriage debate. I have a table below which summarizes claims and findings about four key empirical questions relevant to the same-sex marriage debate.

Friday, June 7, 2013

The current push for same-sex marriage is but a staging post in a deeper and longer-term campaign being waged against heteronormativity and heterosexism. Heteronormativity is the assumption that heterosexuality is the norm and heterosexism is the resulting bias in favour of opposite sex relationships.

Wednesday, May 29, 2013

I was intrigued to read of Kevin Rudd's change of heart on gay marriage last week. He now supports changing the legal definition of marriage to encompass same-sex relationships. Whereas in 2008 Rudd championed the removal of all other forms of discrimination against same-sex couples, he now believes Australia should go all the way to equalize same-sex relations, right down to and including the fundamental building block of the family, marriage itself.

Saturday, April 27, 2013

Dr Kermit Gosnell was until recently an abortion provider in
Philadelphia. When a raid was conducted against his facility, euphemistically referred to as the Family and Women's Medical Society, what FBI agents and state police discovered horrified them.

Tuesday, March 5, 2013

Two mutually incompatible arguments are advanced to defend gay marriage. The first states that marriage is a good thing provided by the state, such that gay people have the same right to it as anyone else. The second states that marriage is a bad thing, and that bringing gay people into the institution of marriage will destroy it from the inside.